350 THE BIRDS 
season, the latest nest found with fresh eggs being May 
28th; this lateness I attribute to the first nest being 
destroyed by a storm. Five and six eggs is a complete 
set for this section. The nest is composed of very fine 
pieces of grass or plant fiber, interwoven with plant down, 
spider-webs, and fine strips of inner bark and lichens, 
with an outside covering of lichens. Eggs, bluish-white, 
specked with chestnut, somewhat pearform in shape. 
Size, .56x.46. Fresh eggs May 5th to 15th. They arrive 
about March 29th to April 3rd, and leave us about August 
28th. Their song is soft and sweet, uttered constantly 
while feeding, particularly in the cypress or juniper 
foliage, which they seem to be particularly fond of. 
Much of their food is taken on the wing, after the manner 
of the flycatchers ; gnats, flies, small spiders, and numerous 
small insects and their larve being their chief food, thus 
placing them on the beneficial list of the agriculturist: 
